DUTCHMEN IN DINGHY Ballycotton, Co. Cork. At 10.45 p.m. on 6th October, 1963, five Dutch fishermen left Ballycotton harbour in a rubber dinghy to return to their ship which was anchored with twelve other Dutch trawlers in Ballycotton Bay. The dinghy was blown off course and finally went ashore on the north-east point of Ballycotton lighthouse. The four men managed to scramble up the cliff into the lighthouse. At six minutes past twelve on the morning of the yth the life-boat Ethel Mary went to the lighthouse in a moderate north-westerly gale and a choppy sea, where it was learned that one of the five men was missing and one of the survivors was very weak. The life-boat searched for the missing man without success. The life-boat then returned to Ballycotton where a doctor and nurse were embarked and taken to the lighthouse to attend the four survivors. The life-boat searched again for the missing man without success.

She then took the four survivors back to their ship, where it was learnt that the missing man had swum back to his ship.

The life-boat returned to her station where the coxswain saw twenty-four other Dutch fishermen trying to get back to their sh;ps. The coxswain decided to take them in the life-boat which finally returned to her station at 4.30 p.m..